There's a small paradise in the Med Sea. A wonderful place, where a freediver can feel the magic of a trip to the past, back to when the heavy hand of man had not yet started to change the appearance and the essence of our beloved sea. It's called Scandola, and it's not too far or too hard to reach. It's a Marine Park, embedded in one of the most astonishing natural beauty of the world. Sailing at dusk, in a clear evening in may or october, along the steep cliffs from Piana to Porto, with the sun casting its light on the red rocks, admiring the Girolata Gulf, or just staring at the strange shapes the rocks were formed into by volcanoes and by the action of the water and the wind, in times too long for us quickly passing wanderers to understand, watching the perfect fly of the hawk while wild goats eat from bushes close to the sea line, is really something no sea or nature lover should miss, at least once in a lifetime. For us, whose eyes are always attracted by the blu before than any other color, the most beautiful part is under water. Almost all of the med sea species can be seen there. Diplodus Sargus, in large schools with fish of any size, large Ephinepelus Marginatus in shallow water, Sciaena Nigra hovering suspended upon rocks and seaweed, Dentex Dentex coming to give their aggressive look at the stranger entering their territory... What I like most is that the freediver must earn this all. The groupers don't come close to the diver, because nobody has hand fed them, turning a wild animal in a circus talent for a show to sell to total strangers. Plenty of fish there, but they'll refuse direct approaches, and they'll move away if one stays too long in the same place. The Park is very small, and very well cared after. Gently, but firmly, both officiers and park guards come to check if the freediver is respecting the place, and also local people enjoying a boating day come close and warn when they see a mimetic wetsuit and long blade fins. Sometimes it's not nice to be warned any five minutes by any passer by that fishing is not allowed, and to stop freediving to explain that we're using underwater camcorders and not spearguns, but if this strong attention helps keeping the Reserve as it is and free from illegal poachers, then it's more than OK.

I've just come back from a spearfishing trip to my beloved Corse. I went to the north western coast, in a place I'd already been a few years ago. The main reason for the trip was the shooting of a new issue of "Spearfishing wanderers" the video series which aired on Pesca TV Sky 236, the italian tv channel I work for. My last trip there went fine and I managed to catch some very nice fish, like a huge 40+ AJ, a nice Dentex, some large brown meagers (nowadays protected, along with the dusky gouper, in France). This time I found very different weather conditions which seemed wonderful , apparently. Sunny days, warm water, flat sea.... Too bad, even in Corse, fish approach shallow water only under particular conditions. For example, on rough sea days, when the strong swell helps small fish find food that is lifted from the bottom, and predators manage to keep hidden in the foam and the murky water, surrounded by loud sounds that cover the vibrations they emit while swimming. Another example is when the thermocline is found only a few meters from the surface. Fish are cold blooded, and like warmer water. Tide and moon phase are also important when it comes down to finding fish in shallow water.

While preparing for the trip, the destination of which had been decided only two days before departure, I was afraid of an incoming bad storm from west, since the sea had been flat for almost ten days straight, and this is a very rare event here in Corse. The flat calm sea lasted for the whole time of our stay there. The water temperature was about 25° C, which is warmer than is expected during this time of the year. The thermocline was located between 30 and 40 meters.

To make it even more difficult, a fat shiny full moon, lit the nights like a beam. During the first days we found an almost lifeless sea. No fish, no catch. Just a few mullets, some seabreams, small and plenty nervous, an average of a single nice fish met per day, after seven hours of swimming and several spots visited. Then we eventually found them in the last two days. After wandering all over the area, covering miles and miles, we tried diving in a low profile spot, a small bay with a flat and shallow bottom that we would have missed had we found fish anywhere else.

And then something happened. Our best catch was the fish in the picture on top of this page. Then a nice seabass, another Lichia Amia, a nice Gilthead, and a few more fish I could not catch. All in this very uncospicuous spot. Most likely, all these fish were there because a large school of some thousand very small barracuda of about 20 cm were swimming there, filling the bay with their presence. Two out of the three predators I manage to catch had some of them in their stomach.

Corse is undoubtedly suffering the serious drop in fish presence that we are seeing everywhere, even if there's no real industrial fishing fleet there, and its human density is far below other Mediterranean sea places on average. Maybe, the sensation of the severe drop is more noticeable in Corse than anywhere else, because the change from many toa few fish is more noticeable than the change from a few to no fish, as is happening in many other places. Nonetheless, there are still fish in Corse. However, upgrading, updating and modifying one’s skills and strategies has become very important, like searching for fish in places that are usually overlooked, and abandoning the most eye catching but deserted ones. Even if catching nice fish is becoming more and more difficult, Corse is still my favourite place on earth. The transfer from Bastia to our final destination, thanks to an error of my car navigator, that seemed to want me to dig a tunnel through a granite mountain, by asking me to turn left where there was no road, lead us to a long trip through the mountains, where we met a fox, a couple of wild boars and more wild animals, in a wonderful landscape of century old trees and canyons.

My friend and cameraman Gianpiero and I were very happy to have an occasion to visit the wonderful marine park of Scandola, leaving of course our spearguns home, and we enjoyed a breath taking day of freediving inside an incredibly rich and various sea life...But this is another story, and it will be the content of one of my next posts.

Until a few years ago, I used to get a bit annoyed when somebody, watching a spearfishing video showing a good catch of a nice fish shot at short range, or a large school of fish, commented :"In such an Aquarium there's nothing difficult about catching some fish. If where I fish were like that, my string would be always full.....". Forgetting to ask where was that scene taken, and maybe failing to discover that it was exactly one of his spots. It's now a long time I overcome this phase, and now, when I am in such a situation, I pity the poor commenter, who is not, and most likely will never be, a spearfisherman.He will never become one, because instead of following the only path that leads to some success, the path of commitment, of determination, of a strong will for an improvement, he chose to walk the cutoff to failure, the one of excuses. A skilled spearfisherman can, and usually does, catch nice fish where other do not even see one. And not because of a miracle or sheer good luck. Or because he's six legged or four lunged. Admitting this means that one can improve if he wants to. Ascribing other spear's catches to good luck or heavenly spots unknown to other, means giving up any improvement.If you want to become a good spearfisherman, be curious! Watch carefully everything that's happening around you. When you clean out a fish after a catch, check what it ate. Take mental notice of all the details of the catch that can be meaningful, the water temperature, the time of the year, the time of the day, the current, the tide. When at the port, look at what professional fishermen have caught inside their gill nets, check if bait fix is swimming everywhere or if it's not present at all.. Try to build relations between the things you observed, like the movement of bait fish when the predatore was approaching, the kind of rock that fish eventually slipped below after discarding a dozen of similar ones.... When the time is right, some of the odds will narrow, and everything will look clearer, even if only for a while, due to the ever changing nature of a world made of living creatures, due to the law of constant change.A spearfisherman who's not curious is bound to be left behind, or to never become a real spearfisherman at all.

I just came back home from my wonderful fishing trip to the Isla do Sal, Cabo Verde. I had an opportunity to follow with my camcorder Riccardo Andreoli, great giant fish chaser and BWH expert, besides being a very nice person. Even if the conditions were quite difficult, with strong wind, murky water, scarce fish presence for the place, and very high chlorophyll levels, Riccardo landed a few Wahoos, beautiful fish, deadly predators with scissors-like jaws and razor-like teeth. On the occasion, I was lucky enough to meet more great people like his wife Federica, Fabrizio and Romina from Cabo Verde Diving , and Tommaso, who saved one shallow water fishing day with a great African Pompano in a nightmarish fishing day for me. Two episodes of the "The spearfishing wanderers" series should have come out from the trip. I hope I can go back there next year, possibly with better viz and water temperature conditions, and one of my own spearguns for those shallow water fishing days.... :-)

Today morning I tried some fishing close to the shoreline, in a rocky area called Cabo Leao, looking for a big fish. It was great, and my friend Tommaso and I met three Carangidaes of different species. They are very powerful and beautiful fish, and also good to eat.

My friend Riccardo Andreoli, great blu water hunter, got some more nice ones today. I am following him with my UW camcorder, trying to learn as much as I can about this spearfishing technique I know little about. What surprised me most is the sudden change of rhythm in this type of fishing. After long time laps with no fish, not even bait fish, in sightduring which I sometimes find myself yawning, mesmerized by the absence of visual reference points, all of a sudden everything changes when the large fish enter the scene. Only quick intense moments, charged with adrenaline, to place a shot on distant, fast moving fish. Then the fight. Tomorrow we will hunt near the coast, in shallow water. Riccardo and I will swap speargun and camcorder. There should be no large fish there, only average Mediterranean Sea sized fish, maybe plenty of them, but tomorrow we'll see....

Today I saw my first Wahoos. Wonderful fish. A saw a school of three or four large ones, then this one, caught by a local spearfisher man. One of the most beautiful fish I have ever seen. In the next days I'll momentarily trade my camcorder for a speargun and try to catch one....view all my blog's posts

Many passionate spearfishermen use a GoPro to film their catches, fitting the small action camera on their spearguns. One of the weak points of the cam is that the lens has been designed for shooting other extreme sports, and has a very wide field of view, that makes fish look very far and small in the frame. The camera setting that narrows the FOV does not work on the optics, so the same effect could maybe be achieved zooming the clip in in any editing software. New lenses with different focal lengths that should allow for a narrow FOV without loosing definition are now available. It sounds interesting. You can check it here.

Not a big fish, but a nice catch for a very complicated day. Very cold water below three or four meters of depth only, a dull spot I would have skipped calling up my boat man to pick me up and get away. Instead, persisting and being confident in a catch, I could land the fish. I was a bit lucky, but it's important to stay into the water as long as possible and search all over, concentrated and determined. Sometimes the nicest spots are not the right ones.

My blog

July 6th 2014Here starts my new blog, obviously dedicated to spearfishing. From here, I'll share notifications and informations about my video productions, tips and tricks about spearfishing and video gear, rigs, recipes to make the best from our catches, and much more....